The History of Viking Radio

Some radio clubs don't have a club station. Some club stations exist only on paper. Some are at colleges and universities. Some have corporate sponsorship. WA0CJU was one of these.

The Viking Amateur Radio Society applied for a club station license , with the station to be located in the E.F.Johnson building at 299 10th Avenue Southwest (now Johnson Avenue in Waseca on December 5,1966. On December 7,1966 the Minnesota office of the Federal Aviation Agency was notified of this.

Why was the FAA notified of the application for the club license? This was because the Johnson Company was located on the west side of some railroad tracks and on the east side of these same tracks ( now in the area of Waseca Glass and the Yellow Mushroom) was then Waseca airport. The construction of a club station with towers would place the towers in the glide path to the runways of the airport. Thus approval by the FAA was required. The heights of the three towers were to be 60 ft towers with the antennas being no more that 99 ft above ground.

On January 5,1967 a Notice of Aeronautical Study for these towers was sent to the FAA. In a letter from the FAA dated February 20, 1967 permission was granted for construction of the towers at Johnson's if they were marked and lighted. The permit would be come final on April 1, 1967.

There were three towers erected. All of the towers were 66 feet high. The antennas on tower B were a three element FULL SIZED 40 meter beam at 70 ft. 10 and 15 meter beams stacked at 100 ft. It also was an anchor for two 80 meter fan dipoles at 80 feet. There is also a 10 meter ground plane at 45 feet on tower B. Tower A had 132 element 2 meter Satellite Tracking and Communications antenna at 80 feet. This same tower also was an anchor for one leg of an 80 meter fan dipole at 60 ft. The third tower had two 6 meter beams Stacked at 90 feet, two 20 meter beams stacked at 100 feet, one 2 meter J pole at 45 feet. And was also an anchor for the second 80 meter fan dipole at 60 feet.

There was a Johnson Matchstick antenna mounted on the roof of the Johnson building. This antenna was an 80 through 10 meter base loaded vertical antenna, which used a control box in the station to drive a motor at the base of the antenna to select which band to operate on.

There was a planned 160 meter dipole listed in the clubs archives but the WA0CJU qsl card doesn't list it. The qsl card also lists a 44 element antenna on 432 ,but it is not visible on the card. This antenna system was custom designed by Jack Bowen. The entire club station was installed and operational by September 1967.

The rotors were probably Hy-Gain HAM IVs. While they were adequate for towers A and C,they were inadequate for tower B. It failed several time over the years. The gears in it kept braking. While the cause for these failure has never been determined,the possible causes might be either wind loading of the antennas on this tower were to great ,or operator error, by not letting the antennas come to a complete stop before reversing the direction of movement of the antennas. Either of these two,would cause the gears to fail in the rotors.

The station was located IN the Johnson building. It's location was between the inner and outer doors at door number 5. While the drawings indicate that this was a large room,it was not as large as indicated. During daytime hours, the doors to the room were locked. At night they were not locked. This did not mean that the station could not be used during the day. If they got permission from the club station trustee,it could be used.

Equipment that was listed on the WA0CJU qsl card as being in the club station:

• Invader 2000 transmitter: This was a transmitter that was capable of 2000 watts PEP output. It could also be operated at the 200 level by turning off the amplifier section from the front panel. This transmitter was placed in the Johnson Co museum when the club station in dismantled.
• 6n2 Thunderbolt: This was a SSB,CW and Am rf amplifier that covered both the 6 and 2 meter bands. It was rated at 1200 watts SSB and 1000 watts CW. It required 5-6 watts of drive from an external transmitter. It is not known what happened to this amplifier.
• Avenger: A 5 band hf transceiver. A 250 PEP radio that was designed by Johnson,but not put into production. The radio in the club station had a damaged switch on the loading control, and was deemed not repairable by both Johnsons and the club. It too was placed on display in the company museum.
• Thunderbolt II: An rf amplifier that was designed by Johnson. It was to be the companion amplifier for the Avenger transceiver. This amplifier was produce for Henry Radio and sold as the Tempo 2000 amplifier. It is believed that the Thunder bolt II that was in the club station is now owned by Jon Wynnemer WB0ZFH. He inherited it from his parents Ike and Annette Wynnemer WB0BGG and WB0BJK.

One of the pieces of equipment NOT listed on the qsl card was a Johnson Viking Phone patch. This was used to make phone patches between CJU and KR6AF (Ryukyu Islands), KX6HR (Marshall Islands),and KG6SM on Guam during the late 1960's during the Vietnam war. It was also used to make patches with missionaries as well.

Another piece of radio equipment that was not listed on the card but was listed in the logbooks was a Johnson Messenger 215. This was a 10 watt AM ,tube type transceiver that was capable of operating from 25 to 50 Mhz. It was also crystal controlled. It had crystals for 29.640 Mhz. This was the frequency used for the Waseca Area Net, which met on Thursday nights. This radio was some times paired with a PA 85,an 85 watt rf amplifier. 29.640 May also have been the frequency that was used for the transmitter or “bunny” hunts as they were called here in Waseca.

In January 1970 a Swan 260C a 240 WATT 6 meter SSB,CW and Am transceiver was purchased for the station. Before this date there were several contacts from CJU using a Heathkit SB 110.This was a 6 meter CW/SSB transceiver. It is believed that this was owned by Ron Keller K0UYN.

In December of 1975 the club purchased a complete hf station from R.L.Drake to replace the clubs Avenger. This consisted of a T4XB high frequency 200 watt PEP SSB/CW transmitter,an R4B Receiver (with crystal if filters),MS-4 Speaker,an AC-4 power supply (for the T4XB),and a MN-4 antenna tuner. This station could be operated as a transceiver or as separate transmitter and receiver for split operation for working DX.

The first contact for CJU was on September 28,1967 on 7.215 Mhz with Sam W3HN From Chevy Chase Md. The operator was Walt Zarris. (he was the original station trustee). On that date he made 17 contacts. A total of 22 contacts were made that first day.

The first Dx contact was on September 30,1967 at 0511 UTC with VP1HR Roy in British Honduras on 7.240. It was a phone contact, and Mike Golden was the operator.

On October 3 there was a phone contact from 0530 UTC to 0545 UTC on 14.200 USB with KC4USJ from Plateau Station Antarctica ,Keith Williams was the operator. CJU was running 250 watts.

On October 5 there was a phone contact with 8R1C on 20 meters form Georgetown Guinnea. CJU was using 250 watts.

On November 7 there was a contact with Clark CE0AF on Easter Island, on 14.285 SSB with CJU using 1KW.

December 1, 1967 Marked the first of many short contacts over a period of almost a year with EP2DA in Tehran Iran. Searching the Internet revealed that this was the callsign issued to Don Alexander WB6QCP/W4PA.His mailing address was AFSEC BOX 500 APO New York. This indicates that he was probably a diplomat, or something. But I find it interesting that no logged contact lasted for more than 5 minutes.

From 23:30 on May 13 till 02:30 on May 14 WA0USJ was activated on 29.640 for storm spotting ,during a tornado watch.

There were numerous entries from May 5 to May 20 of 1967 on 29.640 Mhz listed as operating from Charles City Ia. Possibly from the Civil Defense trailer in support of tornado recovery efforts from there. Waseca Count Civil Defense DID provide the trailer and some operators for this effort.

This was not the only time CJU was used for storm related activity. On June 24,1969 it relayed reports of a tornado in Jasper Minnesota ,in southwestern Minnesota to the Minnesota Weather Net on hf. It also relayed a request for assistance from this same are between 18:30 to 18:50 UTC. It was also used to relay reports from WA0USJ to this net on occasion. WA0USJ was the callsign of the Waseca County Civil Defense at the time. It is believed that USJ did not have hf capability at this time and CJU was used to relay these reports.

On February 14,1968 WA0CJU received an Official Notice of Violation from the Federal Communication Commission about out of band operation that was observed on 14.1994 Mhz. A reply was sent by Walter Zarris (station trustee for WA)CJU) to the FCC on February 29,1968 stating that (station operator) Ron Keller K0UYN was trying to contact VE1XG and accidentally used the wrong vfo on the Avenger for one transmission and then switched to the correct one for transmission.

On July 30 of 1968 UA3KBO ,The Moscow Radio Club was worked on 21.299 at 17;38 UTC.

Some of the DX worked from the station included stations in Monrovia, Guyana,Germany,Costa Rica,Crete,Hong Kong,Ascension Island,France,,Tunisia,Reunion Island,South Africa,The Philippines, Gibraltar,Australia,Lebanon,Lebanon, Ghana Saipan,Ecuador,Venezuela,Nepal,India,Italy,England,Kenya,Israel,Denmark,Ukraine,Korea,Cuba,Singapore,Estonia,Navassa Island Dx expedition,St. Kits Island,Finland, St.,Chile,St.Martin Island,Trinidad,Rwanda,Iwo Jima,Mozambique.

September 4,1969 CJU worked WX2MAP on 14.315 USB,the special events station at the Miss America pageant.

On October 21,1969 the station was used to conduct on air transmitter tests of the Thunderbolt II amplifier for Henry Radio on all hf bands. Henry later sold this amplifier as the Tempo 2000.

From August 1970 till February 1972 there were no entries in the WA0CJU logbooks. This may be because of there being no station trustee.

On March 16,1972 the station was used to test 220 mhz transmitters and receivers. This is believed to mean they tested Messenger 380's.

While the beginnings of the club station are relative easy to pinpoint, the disassembly of it are not. It is generally believed that Johnson needed more space for it's growing engineering department. By 1974, it was decided that the club could keep the club station AT Johnson's, but not necessarily IN Johnson's,like it was before. This expansion occurred in the early to mid 1980's.

By November of 1974 the Civil Defense trailer had been moved to the Johnson parking lot and place to the east of the garage. This gave it access to the B tower and antennas. The removal of the antennas on tower C and at least one other tower that was erected for Johnson's use on the west side of the building was done by Dave Dunlop W0HUU of Dave's Tv and Appliance. He did this in the evening after Johnson employees working days had left. The ground crew for this project were volunteers from the club that Dave could get. While records don't exist that named who these people were it is known to this author that Iver Wynnemer WB0BGG and Jon Wynnemer WB0ZFH were among them. Jon Was the only one allowed to work under the tower because he had a construction hat from his employer at that time (Birdseye) required their male employees to wear them. Dave was supposed to store the antennas removed until Johnson determined what to do with them. After not hearing from them ,he contacted them ,and was told that he could keep them. Some of the pieces from them were later later used in some of the antennas that he built for his own use. These antennas and pieces were probably still at Daves home when he died.

There are no records indicating who removed the antenna on tower A,though it probably was the same crew. Tower C was left standing until another expansion of the company sometime in the late 1980's,by which time the club station was officially dismantled. During it's short existence WA)CJU made over 7,000 contacts on all bands, checked into local nets, provided emergency communications,and operated during contests.

The club's callsign WA0CJU lives on as the identifier on the 146.940 Mhz repeater.